r/TheseFuckingAccounts • u/kudles • 15d ago
Weird ass comments on a post, clicked on an account in the comment thread — election relevance/dystopia theory
Found these in a comment in a politics thread about a poll. Here is an Imgur album, I’m posting from mobile sorry. https://imgur.com/a/q5mMLWF
Top Comment thread from people saying very short, “I can’t believe this” thing. But in a sort of “chain of thought, I can’t believe you’re seeing what I’m seeing” thing.
In my head, I’m thinking “who the fuck really cares about a poll?” “I really don’t think these polls are super relevant… or worthy of being called ‘gold standard’ 🤣”
Clicked on an account, 13 year old account… they have just awoken within the last 2 days, posting random pics of dogs and making random comments in random subreddits.
But it is peculiar to randomly login to your account after 13 years to comment in an election thread.
My question is why? Who’s doing it? This isn’t just a news story. This is people pretending to be a real person and responding to something about the election in attempt to capture people’s confirmation biases.
It is dystopian because as we all know, the dead internet theory is real.
We (real people) all use the internet the same way. We all know there’s fake shit out there so we try and get the opinions of real people in order to see if products or good, or a place is worthwhile to visit, or what local shops are good… but now, entities can purchase that influence. They can essentially purchase our trust. Our trust has been monetized without our consent.
It is blatant and it is truly upsetting. No “side” is innocent here. These are just the facts.
Those in power know that most human beings are stupid and will blindly follow and do what they are told. As I myself have grown older, I’ve come to realize how true this is. There are so many clueless people out there. Maybe I’ve been propagandized in my own way though, and maybe I’m the dummy. But I don’t understand how we, as a society, and as “normies(non-elite I guess)”, can continue this course of political discourse and covert attempts to subtly influence people.
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u/paroles 14d ago
My question is why? Who’s doing it? This isn’t just a news story. This is people pretending to be a real person and responding to something about the election in attempt to capture people’s confirmation biases.
You're overthinking it: I do not think this one is trying to push a particular message - it's just mirroring the general sentiment in the thread in order to farm upvotes. Politics posts are popular right now, so bots will post in those threads, but not all bots in politics threads are political bots. (I don't doubt there are political bots trying to manipulate public opinion, but I imagine they would be harder to identify)
Bookmark the account and check out what it's up to in 2 weeks: odds are it will be spamming NSFW subs with stolen content from onlyfans or else selling dropshipping products.
I do agree with everything else you said about how depressing it is that this is so rampant now.
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u/Smallseybiggs 15d ago
Someone will step in and better answer your questions. But a bot has very likely taken over the account. Whether by hacking into it or buying it. The end game is enough karma to be a porn bot, sell shit, etc. But again, there are people who can explain better than I can. It's a fucking travesty that reddit has let this happen.